Environmental cleanup costs weigh on Korea

The U.S. Forces Korea's Yongsan Garrison in central Seoul. / Yonhap

By Kang Seung-woo

Despite an agreement on the return of 12 military bases from the United States to Korea, the party responsible for cleaning up environmental contamination at the sites remains an outstanding issue between the allies.

The agreement was finalized, Friday, during a virtual joint committee session of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between Director-General Ko Yun-ju of the North American Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Lt. Gen. Scott Pleus, deputy commander of U.S. Forces Korea (USFK). The 12 sites include two plots of land in Yongsan Garrison, Camp Kim and four other sites in the capital city.

Ahead of the agreement, the environment ministry conducted an environmental survey of the 12 locations and determined both soil and groundwater contamination above threshold levels at all sites.

However, amid residents' concerns that a further delay could complicate decontamination efforts for the already vacated land and regional development prospects, the government will pay to decontaminate the sites out of its own pocket first and bill the U.S. the environmental cleanup costs later. It is estimated the total cleanup costs will come to 1 trillion won ($915 million), according to environmental groups.

Even if Korea pays to clean up all the sites, it seems a daunting task to urge the U.S. to bear responsibility for cleanup.

According to the SOFA Article IV, the U.S. is “not obliged, when it returns facilities and areas to the Government of the Republic of Korea on the expiration of this Agreement or at an earlier date, to restore the facilities and areas to the condition in which they were at the time they became available to the United States armed forces, or to compensate the Government of the Republic of Korea in lieu of such restoration.”

In fact, when the U.S. returned four military sites to Korea last year, including Camp Eagle and Camp Long in Wonju, Gangwon Province, the government held the same stance as now, saying that the two sides would continue talks on responsibilities for base decontamination. According to the defense ministry, the government spent 98 billion won to clean up three of the sites.

However, as Korea and the U.S. have remained far apart over responsibility for the environmental cleanup costs, their talks on who is responsible for cleaning up the bases have made little progress so far.

“It is not a feasible scenario that the U.S. will shoulder the environmental cleanup costs,” said Park Won-gon, a professor of international politics at Handong Global University. “Based on its SOFA with countries hosting American troops, except for Germany, the U.S. is not obliged to do so. Even though the government says they will continue to discuss the issue, the U.S. is not likely to accept Korea's request.”

In response to claims that Korea needs to use the decontamination expenses as leverage in defense cost-sharing negotiations, the professor said it could be a bargaining chip. The allies have yet to reach a 2020 deal for Korea's share of stationing 28,500-strong American troops here due to the U.S. demand for a hefty increase.

“The U.S. government feels uncomfortable over host countries paying much for the environmental cleanup costs,” Park said. “In that respect, although it does not make the list of the defense cost, the Korean negotiation team may use it and the U.S. side could consider it positively.”

The U.S. has handed over 68 out of 80 military bases to Korea so far and the defense ministry has decontaminated 24 of them, spending 220 billion won in the process.